Wedding Tips & Tricks

A Typical Nigerian Wedding

By Obianuju Mbagwu

A Typical Nigerian Wedding.

Weddings have always been an opportunity for two completely different families to sit, be merry and commemorate the ties that bind them together -“the bride and groom”.

Families in Nigeria always anticipate these kind of events because of the “owambe” and how exciting and exhilarating it can be.

From the playful banter, to the different colorful styles and types of “aso-ebi”, the sumptuous meals, the rich high life and contemporary Nigerian music, the spraying of money, and the fighting over food.

Aso-ebi.

It’s always a blast to watch. Nobody comes to a Nigerian wedding and misses the jollof rice or the small chops but most of all the gossip. On these kinds of occasions, you will know aunties that are already forty-five, but aren’t married, or the daughter of Iya Pamilerin who married oyinbo, or Iya Wasiu’s son who married a village girl from Abeokuta, who he thought would be submissive and not like these Lagos girls but ended up running away with Awele his gate-man to Onitsha


Jollof Rice and Chicken.

The Gossip

The Dance-steps.

However, what I find most scintillating to watch is how “in love” the couple are with each other. From their first dance, where the music is slow, the lights are low and they have their first kiss. To when they are to cut the cake at the number of children they want to have. To when they feed each other for the first time. So romantic.

Finally, that day isn’t about the aso-ebi, or the jollof rice or even the gossip. It’s about two people who decided to spend the rest of their lives together forsaking everything and everyone else. But hold up. It’s a Nigerian wedding biko, most people don’t care about that, we came here to party, let the gbedu continue jare.

Photo Credits: @akintayotimi

Vocabulary.
{in the indigenous Nigerian language”Yoruba”}